The Elvis statement is a lot more likely headline than the Clarke statement, but neither has an edge in plausibility. Armed Liberal, on Winds of Change, devastates the argument that Richard Clarke's animation of the department heads to "shake the trees" had the slightest thing to do with foiling the Millennium Plot to bomb LAX. As the Seattle Times account makes clear, the plot was foiled by some alert customs officers in Port Angeles, WA.
One could probably mount a vague case that the heightened sense of alert at the time contributed to the wariness of the customs officers, but the primary contribution to that sense of urgency wasn't some "rattling of the bureaus" under Clarke's able direction, but the simple fact that the date 01/01/2000 has a great deal more innate significance than 09/11/2001.
Basically, very little in the Clarke argument is based on fact or logic, save this "shaking the trees" comparison. Rather, his case is a simple, though somewhat devious, appeal to authority, on several levels. First, he assumes that principle authorities can, with due diligence, effectively plug most or all operational gaps in human institutions. Second, the primary appeal of the Clarke testimony itself is that it comes from an "insider," who is presumed to have detailed, specific and privileged knowledge of all events and actions taken by three administrations to combat terrorism, and that this professionally detached perspective allows him to render an unbiased and knowledgeable judgment.
But on careful inspection the Clarke case is really about as devoid of facts as the case that Elvis is alive.
Posted by Demosophist at April 13, 2004 10:56 AM | TrackBackClarke seems to believe in a sort of bureaucratic cargo-cult. Important Bureaucrats in high places make good things happen just by *being there* and *having meetings* and stuff. For the millenium, he had lots of Important Meetings (even dressing in a tuxedo, perhaps a clue to the symbolic/superstitious/voodoo approach he had to counterterrorism? : http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/terclrk.htm ), and whaddya know, it worked! A border agent spotted a suspicious character. Must be due to Richard Clarke!
And the Bush administration drew his ire, apparently, for abandoning that cargo-cult.
Posted by: Blixa at April 14, 2004 11:20 AM